Nearly 20 years after moving from China to the UK, I’m still not sure what freedom means

Those arriving in the UK in search of freedom will find it comes in conflicting forms, from uniting against an invasion to refusing to wear a medical mask

For a Chinese expat taught that national interest comes before personal want, such expressions are eye-opening, if sometimes confusing

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People protest against a Covid-19 lockdown in London on December 18, 2021. Photo: EPA-EFE

Yue Parkinson

Yue Parkinson is a freelance writer and bilingual author who combines Chinese and Western empathy and know-how.

Published: 3:30am, 19 Oct 2022Updated: 3:51am, 19 Oct 2022

Recently, many new immigrants from Hong Kong have moved to my town. They say they come here to find freedom, and I understand and sympathise with that.

Freedom is something that I couldn’t understand before I came to the UK. It was just a word. The specific acts it seemed to refer to were speaking and demonstrating. Freedom of speech always sounded desirable, but freedom to demonstrate felt like something that would damage the social order.

During my 18 years in the UK, freedom has been the most difficult concept for me to understand, because it is so abstract. I know vaguely that Britain is free, but I don’t know how free it is.

Could any British person give a straightforward definition if asked to? My British family and friends had such a benign assessment of the world that they thought democracy and freedom were common sense, so naturally they didn’t know that I needed help understanding.